What Camera Filters Do I Need

20080813-filters

Whammo! You lot didn't see that coming, did you?

Why is it that, despite all our planning, nosotros sometimes become caught by surprise, totally unprepared, with our pants down equally it were? I mean, we're smart folks, right? How come up sometimes we just don't see stuff coming?

The answer is, much of the time, that we don't come across everything clearly because we don't come across a lot of things at all. We process the raw stuff of experience through a multifariousness of filters – and we human action on the "processed" information, not the world as it is.

Those filters are engrained in the states, oft from birth, and nigh of the time they assistance the states to effectively office in our social and physical environments. For example, one very simple filter we have is how to isolate something interesting or important from a cluttered background – think finding your keys amid the mess at the bottom of your purse. Or identifying something good to eat – a ripe fruit, peradventure – among the unripe fruits, leaves, and branches of a tree.

That'south a pretty bones filtering ability (though the physiological mechanisms involved are quite complex) that humans everywhere rely on every day to survive, and so it's a good thing. But at that place are many much more complex filters that we choice up as function of our thinking repertoire, and as helpful as they might sometimes be, they can besides get us into a lot of trouble.

Here are some examples:

Language

Language is a powerful force in shaping our beliefs. Simply ask a sanitation engineer! Employers take long recognized the way that task titles can touch on employee operation – which is why there are so few clerks then many associates at your local retail mega-outlet.

But language can lead us astray, as well. Consider this example drawn from the register of linguistics: a tanning factory discharges wastes, more often than not animate being matter, into a pond. The decomposing waste material creates flammable gasses. A "pond", though, is not combustible, right? I mean, correct?! A man is working near the pond. Not taking any special precautions – why would you, side by side to a "pond"? – he ignites a blow-torch. A sheet of flame engulfs the pond and spreads to the nearby factory, destroying it.

The language we use to describe people tin strongly influence our behavior towards them. Feminists recognized this when they started insisting on terms like "police force officer" rather than "policeman". Or consider this: numerous studies accept shown that people with "indigenous-sounding" names are less likely to get job interviews every bit similarly-qualified people with "white-sounding" names.

Gender

Gender is a powerful filter in every culture – although the behaviors it shapes can be very different from civilization to culture. What is considered men's work in one society – carrying heavy loads of bricks, for example – might be considered women's work in another.

Gender leads the states astray when it leads us to await at a person's gender every bit an index of their abilities. For instance, in the US, it is common to hear people say things like "men are stronger than women". This is not true. Some men are stronger than virtually women, a handful of men are stronger than all women, and virtually men are stronger than some women. But knowing someone's gender does non tell you anything almost how potent they are!

Assumptions near gender extend far beyond physical attributes. With few exceptions, women still are non promoted to meridian-level corporate positions, despite the number of qualified women in the business earth. Men are assumed to have "leadership qualities" that women lack – and women'southward leadership qualities tend to exist dismissed every bit signs of "manliness" or "bitchiness".

Race and Ethnicity

What is truthful of gender is also true of race and ethnicity. Knowing someone's race or ethnicity tells us little about that item person – all the same we human activity as if information technology told us a lot. Here'south an example: a black educatee of mine was accused of plagiarism in another class when she handed in an excellent essay. This is a student that added immensely to every classroom word she took part in, and who wrote insightfully in every assignment she gave me (including "personal reflection" papers that cannot be plagiarized). The other professor did not take any examples of piece of work that the pupil had allegedly copied from; information technology was merely "too good". Race may not accept been the just gene, but it was clearly a factor; I've never had a white pupil of similar quality face a similar accusation.

Hither's another case: Black and other minority athletes, performers, even military leaders and politicians are often described every bit "articulate", an adjective rarely applied to their white counterparts. People do not await articulate speech from non-white persons, and are surprised when they hear intelligent dialogue from black speakers.

Personal Experience

An old joke claims, "All Indians walk single file. At to the lowest degree, the 1 I saw did."

Personal experience is a powerful learning tool, but it tin lead us astray when we make simulated assumptions based on generalizations from limited experience. Childhood experience tin can brand for peculiarly powerful filters, every bit they tend to exist imbued with strong emotional resonance, but any feel tin lead us to wrong conclusions.

Examining Your Filters

What is insidious virtually all of these factors is that most of the time they role without usa even noticing them. We don't promote Chad over Wilma because Chad'south a man, but considering he seems more "leaderly", because he has that "certain something". And maybe he does – or possibly our invisible assumptions about gender brand weak signs of "certain somethingness" seem strong, while Wilma's powerful "certain somethingness" is filtered out.

It'southward unlikely that you volition grab your filters at work in your day-to-day life, just yous can reflect on the way you have interacted with other people and how you've handled diverse situations (perhaps in a weekly review?). You may well be surprised to find that, in many cases, you can't seem to put your finger on exactly why you acted the manner you did – a sure sign of a filter at work. Paying attention to those moments volition bring yous a long way towards replacing the stock of experience and received wisdom with filters that allow you lot to more accurately and effectively act.

I've listed simply a handful of obvious filters here. What are your filters? How could you deal with them?